Vicor realizes power conversion breakthrough and promotes robot revolution
Time:2022-11-15
Views:1486
The innovation of power conversion technology is realizing the reform of robot design
Today‘s integrated power module is meeting the requirements of size, weight, power budget and cost efficiency, which are necessary to bring robots from factories, homes and commercial applications into a vast new world you can imagine.
We are at a turning point where robots will bring great advantages to our lives. OLogic plays an important role in the large number of applications of robots.
OLogic is an electronic design consulting company located in Santa Clara, California. With more than 15 years of rich experience, OLogic helps customers bring robot design of all sizes to the market by providing electrical and mechanical industry engineering support and software and firmware engineering design.
This includes the professional technology of power electronic device integration, which is the main design consideration to determine the working range, functionality and charging capacity of the mobile robot.
OLogic has designed a large number of robots for many industries, including agriculture, smart home and inventory control. The robot customer base of OLogic can be traced back to a startup, Willow Garage, which is regarded by many as the pioneer of mobile robots in Silicon Valley.
Willow Garage is famous for its ability to integrate off the shelf open source software from universities and other entities to help robots perform difficult tasks.
When the company was dissolved in 2014, robot software experts left one after another, and they later founded almost all important robot start-ups in the Bay Area. This created a new business for OLogic to cooperate with Savioke, Knightscope, Fetch and Dusty Robotics.
Example of robot power supply network/
Ologic uses Vicor power modules (buck, boost, and PRM) in its robots because they are power intensive, efficient, and simple to use.
Ted Larson, CEO of OLogic, said: "Recently, the most used component is the Vicor ZVS step-down voltage regulator. We have now used it in many parts of mobile robots. I never need to think, ‘Oh, I need 5A or 10A current under 12V voltage, and I want to build my own power supply.‘ I don‘t need to think like that anymore."
Larson continued: "The real rock stars in the robot industry are those companies that develop advanced software for such businesses as machine learning or robot algorithm task navigation. Electronic devices were added later. As a result, people thought they could buy all these ready-made things, and then assembled them. This soon became an unreliable plan."
Power supply is preferred
Mobile robots have unique power challenges and require a series of power levels. The sensors, servo motors, actuators, data servers, communication systems and other equipment of the running robot have different power supply and power density requirements.
Some are very power consuming, and some may not run for long. This requires fast, clean, and cost-effective power from battery power.
Larson said, "Recently, the most used component is the Vicor ZVS step-down voltage regulator. We have now used it in every part of the mobile robot. I never have to think, ‘Ouch! At 12V, I need 5A or 10A current, so I want to build my own power supply.‘ I will never think like that again."
Automatically build layout, saving money and time
Dusty Robotics (Dusty) is a customer who works closely with OLogic to optimize its power configuration. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Dusty has always been committed to manufacturing robot driven tools for modern construction workers.
For centuries, the construction industry has used two simple tools to draw building plans: tape measures and chalk lines. Even today, when architects use advanced 3D CAD models to design buildings, the process still needs to print the layout on paper and bring it to the construction site for manual annotation.
The measuring and marking process of tape measure is slow and prone to human error, which affects the project progress and budget. Dusty data shows that errors can lead to rework, which usually accounts for 10% of the cost of construction projects.
Philipp Herget, co-founder and chief technology officer of Dusty Robotics, pointed out that "there will be many mistakes in manual planning, and the actual mistakes are much more than the budget of the construction industry.
We have heard of some cases where layout errors led to bankruptcy of construction companies. Dusty Robotics can prevent errors, because all annotations are not completed manually, but are completed by robots, and are accurate. "
Dusty FieldPrinter can increase the speed by 5 times without error
Dusty eliminates the conventional labor-intensive process of marking building plan icons on the construction site. Robots programmed on the construction site can automatically complete this task.
The Dusty FieldPrinter robot first loads the electronic version of the plan, and then prints out various functional layouts at the construction site, such as walls, doors, pipeline facilities, and electrical facilities. It can complete the work within the range of one sixteenth of an inch of the specification at about five times the speed of manual operation.
This innovation makes the construction industry work more like a digital manufacturer, not only improving consistency, predictability and reliability, but also improving working conditions for skilled workers at the core of the construction process.
Herget said: "If we can shorten the construction period, we can speed up the completion. The earlier the completion, the faster the payment. Time is money."
Power the Dusty FieldPrinter robot
Dusty‘s FieldPrinter is a battery powered mobile robot that can work for a long time under various weather conditions. It has a large number of different electronic devices, including sensors, drive motors and electric components, a processor with a large amount of computation, and a printer, all of which have different working voltage and current requirements.
This is why Dusty commissioned OLogic to build core electronic devices for its robots. OLogic started with a discrete power solution. However, over time, Vicor introduced a power modularization scheme to OLogic to build a power supply network (PDN) for robots.
OLogic began to realize that they could not design a product with high working efficiency and heat dissipation efficiency, and a wide working range, like the Vicor power module. In addition, Vicor modules such as ZVS step-down voltage regulator can also bring high economic benefits when providing 200 to 300W power and 97% efficiency.
With its long battery life and industry-leading power conversion technology, Dusty‘s robot innovation is helping the construction industry realize digitalization, which can create a unified data source on the construction site based on the digital model.
Now, architects, general contractors and each business partner no longer carry out construction according to their paper plans, and each unit performs its own duties according to the unified design marked on the site.
The ability to provide a digital layout can enhance the coordination among these numerous partners, which can improve planning, improve execution and shorten the completion time.
Herget said: "Construction automation is increasing the ability of human beings to transform the world. People used to use screwdrivers, but now they use electric tools. This can greatly simplify work.
Our robot driven tools can help the construction industry achieve core breakthroughs and create better results while improving the working environment of skilled workers. "
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